Agenda - 05-18-2021; 6-a - Unified Development Ordinance Text Amendments

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345 Proposed Addition of Option for Alternative Notice (Sections 2.3.5 and 2.8.7) As was explained during the public hearing on May 4, 2021, State statutes have long allowed an alternative to mailed notice for large-scale map amendments (both the Future Land Use Map and the Zoning Map). The provision can be found in NCGS 160D-602(b). In an effort to conform the County's UDO to State statutes, County Attorney's office staff directed Planning staff to include in the UDO amendments all allowances and requirements contained in the statutes, regardless of whether allowances are intended to be used in Orange County's practices. For this reason,the allowance for alternative notice has been suggested for inclusion into the County's UDO in Sections 2.3.5 (notice requirements for Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map amendments) and 2.8.7 (notice requirements for Zoning Atlas amendments). The proposed additional text, which mirrors statutory language, reads as follows: (From 2.3.5,the text in 2.8.7 is the same except it addresses Zoning Atlas amendments) (a) Alternative option to mailed notice for large-scale Future Land Use Map amendments shall be as follows: The first class mail notice required by subsection (2) shall not be required if a Future Land Use Map amendment proposes to change the land use classification of more than 50 properties, owned by at least 50 different property owners, and Orange County elects to use the expanded public notice described as follows: (i) An advertisement published as described in (C) below, provided that the advertisement is not less than one-half of a newspaper page in size. (ii) The advertisement shall be effective only for property owners who reside in the area of general circulation of the newspaper that publishes the notice. Property owners that reside outside of the newspaper circulation area, according to the address listed on the most recent property tax listing for the affected property, shall be notified according to the provisions of subsection (2). At the public hearing, BOCC members expressed a desire to perhaps include parameters on when the alternative option might be used. Staff offers the following parameters as a starting point for discussion: • Add language that would allow alternative notice only on County-initiated amendments; and/or • Add language that would allow alternative notice only if a mailing has already occurred earlier in a project's process and said mailing has outlined the expected process. Mailing examples include: a Public Outreach Meeting, a Neighborhood Information Meeting, or the Planning Board meeting. o As materials on previous pages shows, Orange County provides notice beyond statutory minimums, resulting in at least two separate mailings for map amendments (at a bare minimum,there is a mailing for the Planning Board meeting and a mailing for the public hearing). o For historical information purposes: Orange County has a long history of holding at least one public outreach meeting (prior to the Planning Board meeting)for County-initiated 3